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OPINION
Page 4
Friday. September 25, 1981
The Michigan Daily
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Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Baseball 1992: It's a blast!
By Steve Hook
Vol. XCII, No. 14
420 Moynard St.
Ann Arbor, M1 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
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Redecorati~n
NANCY SAYS she's all done now.
The first Lady is finished redoing
the White House; what's more, she's
done it on a budget.
And what a budget: $822,641.
The White House Press Office has
assiduously refused-probably with
good reason-to break down exactly
how all that money was spent. All
that's known is that $209,000 went into a
new set of dishes, and that other major
costs were for plumbing, refinishing
floors, and rewiring.
No one is suggesting that the First
Family should have to live in abject
poverty, but the sort of regal splendor
for which the Reagans seem to be
aiming is, in this day, unconscionable.
The White House is very careful to
point out that every penny of the
money for redecoration came from
private donations. The fact remains,
however, that even though the money
for redecorating was from private
sources, the donations were tax deduc-
table. Part of the bill for the
Women mi
Lg oan a budget'
redecorating is going to be picked up
by the taxpayer in the form of reduced
federal income tax revenue collec-
tions.
Instead of lavishing hundreds of
thousands of dollars on a set of dishes,
Nancy Reagan might pay some atten-
tion to the suffering right in the
District of Columbia itself.
The slums of Washington are among
the worst in the nation-and $800,000
could help a lot of slum dwellers.
Within blocks of the White House, in
fact, there are dozens of "bag
ladies"-women without homes and
without jobs who wander around
Washington carrying all their worldly
belongings in shopping bags.
The 'huge expenditures '.on
redecoration bespeak a haughty and
almost cruel indifference toward the
plight of the needy by the Reagans. In
view of President Reagan's calls for
further cuts in federal spending last
night, the expenditures on the White
House appear ridiculous, disgraceful,
and not slightly hypocritical.
norities hurt
Anything is possible, sports
fans, as the 1992 Major League
Baseball season comes to a fran-
tic conclusion. Just ten days
remain in the stretch drive, and
there are no clear winners in any
division.
As usual, the areas of pitching,
hitting, and base running have
played important rolesin the
most recent clashes, and good old
team spirit has surely propelled
many teams. But there is little
doubt about the key factor in this
race: last ~week's nuclear attack
on several American citiesby the
Soviet Union.
THE UNEXPECTED bom-
bing, which involved one
megaton strikes on eight
metropolitan areas, has resulted
in a drastic realignment for the
remaining cities. Three of the
decimated teams were leading
their divisions, creating new op-
portunities for their foes.
"I'm just delighted," chirped
Minnesoat Twins' manager John
Butterfield, whose Tribe has
replaced the Chicago White Sox
atop the American League West.
"I thought I was dreaming when I
heard about the ICBM's over
,Comiskey Park," he added,"It
was just what the doctor or-
dered."
George Brett, the skipper of the
Kansas City Royals, was less
exhuberant about the surprise
Russian bombing. "We had a
weekend series coming up with
the (California) Angels," he
groaned, "and we were really
psyched for a sweep."
MAJOR LEAGUE President
Fred Thompson condemned the
Soviet Union for "messing up
the playoff picture." He told a
mob of reporters in Washington
that "a nuclear attack in the
hometown of a contender is the
most vicious gesture I can
imagine. They could have waited
until next month."
According to Thompson, the
season will "simply carry on as if
nothing happened," with the up-
coming "holes in the schedule"
being dismissed as "the
equivalent of rainouts. The best
percentages win and go to the
playoffs."
Hitting should become the
dominant factor in the final days,
with several league leading pit-
chers reportedly succumbing to
fallout-induced radiation
sickness. "You can only pour so
much Maalox down their
throats," said Cleveland Indian
trainer George Hicks. In St.
Louis, the entire bullpen has been
stricken with severe nausea and
hair loss.
DESPITE their difficulties,
surviving stadiums around the
league have been bustling with
eager fans, especially the domed
parks which can withstand the
unpredictable fallout showers.
"They've been coming out in
droves," said Texas manager
"Wild" Bill Patterson, "and we
really appreciate their support.
For those who were caught in
that freak radioactive cloudburst
last Sunday, though, our club is
sincerely regretful."
The New York Mets were on
the road when two Soviet missiles
plummeted onto the Big Apple,
but Met manager Joe Stevens
feels much more than just relief.
"There goes the subway series,"
he grumbled, in a reference to the
Mets' arch-rival New York
Yankees. The division-leading
Yanks were leading the- Boston
Red Sox 5-2 when the bombs
descended on the city and
vaporized both teams.
"It's not over until it's over,"
the great Yogi Berra used to say
in the Golden Days of baseball,
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by administration stance
and his words have never been
more appropriate. The Soviet
strike has inspired a passionate
pennant race, and even the most
arrogant baseball experts cannot
choose any clear winners.
Will it be the Toronto Blue Jays
and their feared power hitting, or
the well-coached Baltimore
Orioles? Will the Minnesota
Twins live up to Butterfield's ex-
pectations, and prevail in the
tough A.L. West? Will the Mets
remain in first place, the bulk of
their competition no longer
taking the field? And will those
feisty Atlanta Braves replace the
Dodgers as. the pride of the
National League?
There is simply no way to tell,
but as baseball feverblows away
those last wisps of radioactivity,
one thing is for sure: It's not over
until it's over.
Hook was Opinion Pag4
Editor for the Summer Daily.
T HE REAGAN administration
struck a severe blow to women and
minorities yesterday. Administration
officials announced they will no longer
go to court to force employers found
guilty of sex or racial discrimination to
stick to quotas in their hiring.
The decision seems to typify the ad-
ministration's callous attitude toward
job-seeking women and minorities
across the country. It says, in effect,
that employers may feel free to con-
tinue discriminatory practices of
hiring and firing with little fear of
being forced, by law, to establish
quotas.
This move sets affirmative action
back 15 years. Even the Nixon ad-
ministration, not known for a strong
commitment to/ civil rights, had a
policy , of insisting that employers
follow quotas in their hiring practices.
Unfortunately, the Reagan ad-
ministration has chosen to ignore the
needs of women and minorities in the
job market. Many are still faced with
both blatant ard subtle discrimination.
The change in policy by the ad-
ministration will only encourage those
employers who practice
discrimination in .hiring to continue
doing so.
There is a need to give all people
equal opportunity to procure em-
ployment. The Reagan administration
should not destroy this opportunity-or
even weaken it-by refusing to insist
that sex discriminators abide by
quotas in future job hiring practices._
The problems with giving
economic aid to El Salvador
"DAMNEP INVESTORS AND 3USINESSMEN -
PROBALY ALL A BUNCH OF PEMOCRAT LIBERALS"
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As Congress this month begins a detailed
examination of the Reagan administration's
foreign aid requests, one item is apt to stand
out as a notable exception to the otherwise
sharp reductions from past years.
El Salvador, that tiny Central American
nation of 4 million people, is slated to receive
a whopping $126 million, $100 million of which
is for economic, not military aid.
To put that figure into perspective, obser-
vers note that the same per capita aid level to
a nation like India would amount to $15
billion..
If the experience of the past two years is
any guide, El Salvador's aid will be increased
even further during the fiscal year as funds
originally designated for other areas are
reprogrammed. By'the end of the next fiscal
year, total U.S. assistance since the October'
1979 coup could approach the half-billion-
dollar mark.
Yet despite the magnitude of this commit-
ment, the debate over U.S. policy in El
Salvador continues to be dominated by
political, rather than economic, con-
siderations. The administration continues to
stress the theme of outside Communist inter-
vention in El Salvador and to warn of the
regional dangers inherent in any Marxist
takeover.
Critics emphasize the human rights
violations by the junta's security forces, and
the moral aspects of the struggle between the
ruling elite and the mass of the Salvadoran
population.
As a result of the political reality in El
Salvador, U.S. options are limited to policies
which are uncertain or potentially disastrous.
The United States could totally withdraw
from the conflict and leave the internal forces
to fight it out. This almost certainly would
lead to a victory for the left, with political
consequences which the Reagan ad-
ministration finds unacceptable.
The United States could increase military
aid to the government and push for a total
military victory. This option, which was
initially favored, has lost ground in view of
the Salvadoran army's clear inability to oust
rebel forces from their rural strongholds, or
to maintain and utilize modern military
equipment, such as the U.S.-supplied helicop-
ters.
To lm n -T-- --. _ nlr.:rr- ..rn,-
By Richard Millett
the current level of conflict, pumping in suf-
ficient aid to keep the government afloat and
hoping that eventually its opponents will
divide or abandon the struggle out of sheer
exhaustion.
While paying lip service to the possibility of
a negotiated settlement, the Reagan ad-
ministrationdappears to have chosen the last
of these options. In a speech last July 16,
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-
American Affairs Thomas. Enders talked
about the need for "a political solution" to the
conflict, emphasizing that "only
Salvadorans" could resolve the problems
facing their nation.
But in the same speech he declared that the
Duarte regime "should not grant the in-
surgents, through negotiations, the share of
power the rebels have not been able to win on
the battlefield."
The political supporters of the guerrillas
were promised that if they renounced violen-
ce, broke their support for the insurgents and
entrusted their security to the ruling junta,
they would be given the opportunity to partici-
pate in government-run elections. Such con-
ditions virtually ruled out meaningful com-
promise and committed the United States to
an indefinite support of the current gover-
nment's fight for survival.
If the United States is adopting such a
policy, its enormous economic costs and
potential results should be in the forefront of
the debate.
El Salvador today is virtually bankrupt.
The gross national product has declined
steadily over the past two years, new capital
investment is non-existant, debts are moun-
ting and even the economic minister admitted
that unemployment was at least 50 percent.
More than 10 percent of the population are
refugees, forced to flee from their homes due
to the continuing political violence.
Simply keeping the government from
collapse requires continual and probably con-
stantly increasing infusions of U.S. aid. It is
quite possible that the United States may
ultimately find itself in a situation similar to
that produced in Viewnam, with a large per-
are high and threaten *to become a major
problem, they are even greater for the people
of El Salvador.
There are regional costs as well. Continued
fighting reans continued flows of refugees in-
to the rest of Central America, Mexico and, in
a surprising number of cases, ultimately to
the United States. Tens of thousands already
have made their way here, adding their*
weight to the problems caused by the growing
flow of undocumented aliens across U.S. bor-
ders.
But the results in Central America are
much more serious. The worst case is that of
Honduras where massive economic problems
already are theatening efforts to return to
civilian rule. The continued fighting in El
Salvador poses a constantly growing refugee
burden on this traditionally poorest Central
American nation and, at the same time, in-
creases military pressures for a larger
budget and greater political influence.
It also disrupts regional trade, scares off
foreign investment and encourages domestic
capital flight.
Finally, the demands for constantly in-
creased U.S. assistance to El Salvador, in an
era when overall foreign assistance ap-
propriations are declining, reduces still fur-
ther the amounts potentially available' to
nations such as Honduras and Costa Rica,
where peaceful reforms yet may be possible.
There are, of course, political as well as
economic costs for U.S. strategy of protracted
conflict in Central America. Domestically, El
Salvador has the potential for becoming an
increasingly divisive political issue.
In Central America the failure to find a
solution to the conflict adds to the regional
pressures producing ,political polarization.
And in Mexico, Venezuela, and Western
Europe, popular opposition to administration
policy in El Salvador threatens to obstruct
relations with the United States in other more
vital areas.
In the long range, then, it seems doubtful
that current U.S. policy can be maintained,
By next year at this time, the administration
may have to choose between accepting the
necessity of a negotiated settlement, or, as we
ultimately did in Vietnam, making one last ef-
fort at military victory, this time with more
direct participation.
Prospects for a successful outcome in
either case will be even less than they are
now. Time is not the administration's ally in
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